The Quest for Immortality Chapter 2262: Blood Sacrifice of the Wild Heaven (part 3)

It appears that the White Bone Stele serves as one of the core components for this Evil Path Great Formation, drawing in the flesh, resentment, and evil qi from fallen cultivators, converting them into malevolent energy, and directing it into the earth veins to fuel the Large Formation.

This accomplishment is far from trivial.

The one who crafted this formation surely harbors unconventional ideas, designs, and techniques, boasting a profound mastery over formations.

This individual might well be Mr. Tu.

Yet Mo Hua senses faintly that even Mr. Tu might not possess such supreme proficiency...

Or maybe Mr. Tu couldn't have established this astonishing Evil Path Great Formation by himself.

During the siege on the Demon Sect, when Mo Hua spotted the White Bone Formation Stele atop Yanluo Mountain, he vaguely realized it could be linked to a profoundly terrifying Evil Path Formation.

But back then, he was only guessing without proof, and with scant knowledge of evil formations, he couldn't probe further.

He never imagined it would truly turn out to be an Evil Path Great Formation.

And in an instant, he ended up ensnared within it.

"Junior Brother, what should we do now?" Cheng Mo asked in a low voice.

The rest all turned their gazes toward Mo Hua.

They excel at combat and cutting down foes, but scheming amid peril, grasping opportunities while dodging disasters, or unraveling formations to escape—that's beyond their capabilities.

Particularly inside a vast Evil Formation.

Mo Hua thought briefly, scanned the surroundings, and inquired, "Where are the others?"

The Taixu Gate disciples who qualified for the Earth Grade Sword Discussion numbered around thirty.

Yet currently, just over ten remained by his side.

Even Tai’a’s five brothers, serving as his "meat shields," had vanished from sight.

Situ Jian and the others shook their heads. "We tumbled from Xuantian Peak and got scattered everywhere. Just about a dozen of us ended up close by. We searched until we found you, Junior Brother, and stayed put waiting for you to awaken..."

Without Mo Hua conscious, they couldn't relax.

The environment felt alien; lacking Mo Hua's guidance, they refrained from rash actions.

Mo Hua nodded. "Let's explore the vicinity first, survey the terrain, and search for the missing ones."

"Alright."

"Yes, Junior Brother."

All agreed promptly.

Mo Hua took the lead, Linghu Xiao covered the rear, while Cheng Mo and the rest shielded Mo Hua, arrayed in formation as they warily started scouting the region.

After circling the area once, observing the landscape and detecting the formation’s aura, Mo Hua mentally outlined the array’s critical nodes. Drawing on his knowledge of Large Formations, he pieced together their predicament.

This was undoubtedly an Evil Path Great Formation.

Furthermore, their location sat near the formation’s heart, within a labyrinthine Evil Path Compound Formation.

The zone stretched wide and stood utterly sealed off.

Evil power saturated the interior, inciting hatred, greed, envy, and various dark impulses among them.

A faint blood mist hung in the air, laced with poisonous miasma.

Within the crimson haze drifted sinister spirits resembling blood leeches, invisible to typical cultivators.

As Mo Hua guided the Taixu Gate group a few paces ahead, his face suddenly grew stern; he warned:

"Be careful!"

They froze instantly, faces alert.

The air turned oppressively spooky.

Moments later, a savage silhouette erupted from adjacent bushes amid a putrid wind, bellowing as it charged at Cheng Mo.

Cheng Mo, on high alert, dodged aside, retaliated with a sweeping axe blow to the assailant’s shoulder, sent him sprawling, then advanced to hold him fast.

Situ Jian and companions surged in, stabbing swords and blades into his limbs to immobilize him.

Only then did Mo Hua approach.

Cheng Mo and the others turned the captive face-up, allowing Mo Hua to examine his features.

The countenance was unknown to Mo Hua, but the Taoist Robe marked him as a Carefree Sect disciple.

At present, though, this Carefree Sect disciple’s eyes blazed blood-red with slaughter lust, snarling beast-like nonstop, lips smeared with gore and tissue bits, emitting guttural, senseless noises.

The sight turned everyone’s stomachs.

Situ Jian furrowed his brow. "Junior Brother, this..."

Mo Hua sighed. "Evil spirits have overrun his mind; his consciousness is devoured clean."

A cold shiver gripped Situ Jian and the rest.

"Then..."

"End him," Mo Hua stated calmly.

Cheng Mo and others went quiet, wavering.

In the Sword Discussion Conference, battles raged intensely, yet it remained a "sword discussion" with no true fatalities.

But here at Yanluo Mountain, beyond Dao Mountain’s Large Formation safeguard, death struck for real.

Despite different sects, they all hailed from Qian Learning State Boundary academies—fellow disciples sans mortal grudges; how could they bring themselves to slay?

Mo Hua exhaled deeply; reluctance weighed on him too.

Yet this disciple offered no salvation.

His Divine Sense lay wholly consumed by evil spirits, devoid of any remnant awareness.

From the meat fragments clinging to his teeth and nails, it was clear that post-corruption, he had assaulted and devoured fellow sect members like a fiend.

In this state, rescue proved impossible.

And sparing him meant he’d persist as a shambling corpse, slaying more, propagating the "evil spirit" contagion, sparking greater carnage...

"He’s already ’dead.’ Letting him live means more deaths," Mo Hua murmured gently. "Or better said, he’s become a ’demon.’"

Slaying demons falls to Righteous Dao’s mandate.

Even if this "demon" once shared their Righteous Dao lineage.

Cheng Mo and companions shuddered but steeled themselves, nodding firmly.

Linghu Xiao and others then unleashed Sword Qi from afar, carving the possessed Carefree Sect disciple apart.

Upon demise, his body dissolved into the soil, while his resentment and evil qi morphed into ethereal force, blending into the heavens to bolster the Evil Path Great Formation and nurture a cryptic "embryo" deep within.

Mo Hua observed powerless as this transpired.

Such were the merciless laws of the Evil Path Great Formation.

They compelled mutual slaughter—or perish.

Killer or killed, all fed the wicked array, offerings to its evil embryo.

Mo Hua’s brow creased faintly.

The reality diverged from his expectations.

He had plotted to wield Divine Thought as sword, felling Shen Linsu’s crew in one blow, thereby aborting the Heaven Grade Sword Discussion.

The Four Great Sects’ foundations loomed too vast; they’d band against Taixu Gate.

Taixu Gate stood no chance solo against those titans.

A Heaven Grade Sword Discussion would bar Taixu Gate from claiming Sword Discussion supremacy over the Four Great Sects.

Mo Hua had divined this chain of fate repeatedly, always yielding Taixu Gate’s defeat.

No path to triumph existed.

Thus, deeming it futile, Mo Hua opted out.

One stroke to dismantle the Heaven Grade Sword Discussion.

Securing Earth Grade primacy would then crown Taixu Gate overall Sword Discussion victors.

Manifesting Divine Thought into sword to shatter the Eternal Life Rune would invoke the Heaven Void Dharma Phase without fail.

Master Junior Brother and Master Junior Sister had shown him this very outcome.

Invoking the Heaven Void Dharma Phase spelled his doom.

The Fifth Grade Dao Mountain Large Formation would surely activate to save him, clashing against the Heaven Void Dharma Phase.

Such Void Realm clashes unleashed cataclysmic might and devastation, poised to derail any further Heaven Grade Sword Discussion.

All had unfolded per Mo Hua’s scheme initially, yet he overlooked hidden machinations by others.

His decisive strike, while quashing the Heaven Grade Sword Discussion, had stirred unforeseen chaos.

Now, every Heavenly Pride Disciple languished trapped in this Evil Path Great Formation, locked in mortal combat once more.

Evil arrays imprisoned them, evil urges tempted, evil spirits infested, Taoist Hearts crumbled—turning former allies into desperate foes in raw, brutal, blood-soaked fratricide.

Perhaps this carnage amid the Evil Path Great Formation marked the Sword Discussion Conference’s truest "Heaven" Grade Sword Discussion.

A hellish "battle royale."